


Stop Being Such A Vampire

by ajay_lotte



Series: The Yellow Car Initiative [13]
Category: Daredevil (Comics), Daredevil (TV), Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Addiction, Angst and Humor, Attempt at Humor, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Captain America's Shield, Fluff and Humor, Foggy Nelson Is a Good Bro, Gen, Green Goblin - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, King T'Challa (Marvel), M/M, Marci Stahl - Freeform, Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, Minor Karen Page/Claire Temple, Peter Parker - Freeform, Senses, Super Soldier Serum (Marvel), Vibranium (Marvel), college memories, yellow car game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27977298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ajay_lotte/pseuds/ajay_lotte
Summary: In which Matt is addicted to vibranium, hooks up with Bucky on a rooftop, and gets Dominos with Foggy.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Matt Murdock, Karen Page/Claire Temple, Matt Murdock & Franklin "Foggy" Nelson & Karen Page
Series: The Yellow Car Initiative [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1883668
Comments: 16
Kudos: 125





	Stop Being Such A Vampire

**Author's Note:**

> Yoo, another fic similar to the last, but this has been the headspace I guess... promise for the next fic to be more light!  
> Marvel owns all these characters and stuff, this is just a fanfiction for my own amusement because I suck, I'm bored, and had an urge to be cruel to the best superhero one more time before I let Mahoney return  
> Warnings: no swearing, conversations about addictions  
> These are typically crack fics, and in this I have approached typically-comical addictions with humour- but unlike the characters in this fic, it's important to stay safe and reach out for help  
> Look after yourselves and hope you enjoy this fic, Lotte :)

Matt has an addiction.

Foggy’s seen Matt go through many phases of random addictions before, like that month in college when he was obsessed with plaits. “Because they feel like they don’t make any sense, Foggy.” Matt whines when Foggy brings this up as an argument for his case. “And I wasn’t addicted.”

He was definitely addicted.

Foggy spent weeks teaching Matt to plait, and every time he came back from a lecture or a date, Matt would be studying, short hair in multiple ridiculously tiny plaits. And during that month, on the off chance Foggy saw one of Matt’s dates, their hair would be plaited. The biggest give away to the addiction though, was when Matt purely just wanted to feel Foggy’s plaits. The man would never right out say it, but Foggy knew when he wanted to plait Foggy’s hair or just feel them. After nightmares in particular, Foggy found the plaits to help him avoid getting punched in the face. Then Foggy returned to leaving his hair down, and Matt committed to excessive moping for a few days, then it was like the whole thing had never happened.

“Ok, what about the time you had an addiction to Marci’s perfume? That was weird for all parties involved.” Foggy says, making Karen snort as she takes a bite into her burger. It’s a Wednesday- the agreed Josie’s night for the trio- but Foggy declared they were going to go for a meal first, because he needs to deal with Matt’s current addiction.

“I was not addicted to Marci’s perfume.”

“Obsessed, then.” Foggy counters.

“Foggy, I didn’t even like Marci.”

“So you like her now?” Karen snorts. Matt tilts his head in the manner which both his friends know to be him rolling his eyes. “Y’know, Marci came to our drinking night on Saturday Matt. Said she’d known you were doing the night job since college.”

“We have a contract,” Matt says, “in which neither of us can tell you about how she knows unless we are both there and consenting.”

“Well, maybe if I can get Marci to switch perfumes back, getting you both in the same room would be a lot easier.”

“I was not addicted to that perfume, Foggy!”

Matt was addicted to that perfume.

When Foggy first introduced Marci, she didn’t have that perfume, but as soon as she changed it, even if the pair was at each other’s throats in the class, Matt would start leaning towards the scent. And when Foggy came back smelling of her new perfume, and now knowing about the super senses it makes a lot more sense, Matt would always sit slightly closer to Foggy and very not discretely smell him. It got bad when Matt started trying to hide Foggy’s clothes so he couldn’t wash them. By this point it wasn’t Matt’s first phase by far, but it was definitely one of the most prominent. Matt would be over the moon jumping if Marci sprayed the perfume whilst in the same room, which the man denies ever having done. But the time it really became a problem was when Foggy came back from walking Marci home and found Matt drinking the perfume straight from the bottle- hence causing himself vertigo, a very bad kind of drunk, and a trip to A&E.

Marci changed perfume after that.

Matt pretended not to care, had a really bad night terror which involved Foggy getting a concussion, and the perfume was never mentioned again.

Until a year later when they were both drunk and it was all incredibly hilarious.

“Sounds like you were definitely addicted, Matt.” Karen says, and Foggy nods.

“Matt, I’m nodding so enthusiastically that my head’s about to drop off. Karen gets it.”

“Matt, you do realise that Foggy’s constructed this as an intervention, right?” Karen phrases her question carefully, keeping her voice calm. “Between the ice cream, synthesisers, and plastic dinosaurs, it kind of seems like you might be going in the same direction.”

Matt’s face does a thing.

“Buddy, it’s ok, we just want you to be careful this doesn’t go too far. It could become a dangerous addiction.”

Foggy and Karen both look at Captain America’s shield occupying the seat next to Matt.

They’re yet to bring it up.

And Matt seems surprisingly unsuspecting of the thought preoccupying their minds.

Matt’s latest addiction is vibranium. His world on fire is a lot sharper and more comprehendible with it, and the feeling is electrifying on his skin when he touches it. There’s nothing else like it, and the mystifying element is enough to keep Matt occupied for hours, trying to figure out how it works. It’s a lot like adamantium in that way, weaker than Logan’s claws, but more sensory friendly.

“It’s the opposite of dangerous, Fogs! The world is so much easier to live in with it, like, it’s like a cane for my senses. I can concentrate purely on a fight without my perception being affected by a scream a mile over. And I have more time to pay attention to details, like loose slabs, or misplaced signs I hadn’t picked up on. You don’t understand how embarrassing it is when you’re chasing Norman for Spidey because he has a Spanish exam and you trip over a curb because you were too busy thinking about how likely it is he’ll run out of fuel for his hoverboard because the fumes are starting to smell less.”

Foggy pauses. “That’s oddly specific.”

“Weren’t you wearing the vibranium suit last night?” Karen asks, knowing full well Peter’s test was earlier today based on the phone call Matt had a few hours previous.

“Foggy took it. I went out in the pyjamas.”

“But you had that bright red one from Tony! That was a lot safer than the black pyjamas… and Captain America helped make it! Plus… the detachable cape.”

“I’ll wear it for next Halloween. It’s horrifying… and I can’t even see it.” Matt says. “I did catch the goblin though, before Frank- I’m not sure Peter would appreciate it if the Punisher took his favourite supervillain out of the equation.” Neither would Foggy, though the day he admits to agreeing with something about Matt’s night job… has already come, multiple times, which is why they have a contract outlining what Matt has to or can tell him. But he’s not going to say that out loud right now.

Matt beams.

Smug bastard already knows.

“Look, Matt, I’m just worried that your, uh, attachment towards vibranium is going to get worse and I don’t want it to get you hurt.” Matt angles his head towards the shield, and Foggy can just tell he’s busy focussing on that. At least that explains why his partner is a lot less adhering to his current audience. To be fair that is currently only Foggy and Karen, and Matt shouldn’t have to pretend to be someone else around them. That’s the only reason Foggy lets this go. Matt’s had a mantra about ‘no soft things’ for years, and Foggy isn’t going to deprive him of something that makes him happy now. “Just be careful, Matt. Ok?”

“Ok.”

Red’s on patrol the next night when he notices a certain type of metal on a nearby rooftop. He leaps over to the pounding heartbeat and takes a seat next to the super soldier. He has to pretend it doesn’t make him happy to have scared Bucky Barnes. “What you doing in the Kitchen?”

“Someone stole Cap’s shield.” Bucky answers, not looking away from the window. “Fury wants me to make sure there’s no threat. Cap wants me to get it back.”

“There isn’t a threat.” Red says, and the growl in his voice catches Bucky’s attention.

“How can you be so sure?”

“I stole it.”

There’s a pause, long enough for Matt to notice, but not long enough to have any overall effect over the conversation. “As far as I’m concerned,” Bucky says, and his head moves in a way he’s checking Daredevil out, “you are a threat. You could beat Steve in a fight before with your skill, but lately you’ve got more of the Devil in you than ever. You’re stronger, quicker… jumpier. Don’t think Stark hadn’t noticed you and Jones competing.”

That’s not the Devil. That’s just the super soldier serum Matt now his coursing through his veins making him more powerful than his hero who he is afraid to give the shield back to.

“Why’d you steal it?”

“It felt nice.”

“It felt nice?” Bucky repeats. Daredevil hums, licks his lips, then edges slightly closer to the Winter Soldier. “Nice enough to steal.”

Red sighs. “Technically, I didn’t steal it. I just haven’t given it back yet.” There’s a long pause.

“Explain.”

“Hydra’s been experimenting again. I keep finding traces of super soldier serum, a lot has been stolen from their base by other gangs, I think.”

Bucky hums. “That explains your newfound speed. How did they administer it?” Chemicals are spilled over his eyes flashes through his mind, both from his childhood, and from the recreation Wade claims to be in the previous work in this series. The people who kidnapped him didn’t even know what it was. Dad! I can’t see! “-ell’s Kitchen. You’re on a roof. You’re with me, Bucky. It’s 23:18. It’s Thursday. You have Cap’s shield. You’re wearing armour. We’re alone.” Red breaks out of his trance, escaping Bucky’s hypnotic speech. And to think that actual hypnotists have no affect on Matt. “Back with me, soldier?”

“What did you do?”

“Grounded you. Did they administer the serum on purpose?”

“No, it was stolen.” Red complies with the question this time. “But they’ve had to start from scratch. The serum doesn’t work the same as it did on Cap.”

“How do you know?”

“For Captain America, it cured his illnesses, and fixed his sight.”

Bucky nods. “And for you it didn’t. But weren’t you already enhanced, before the serum?” Red nods. “It could have worked different on you. Maybe… wait. Cap has taught me to look for emotion here.” Red moves slightly closer to the Winter Soldier once more, and though the assassin notices, he doesn’t stop the Devil. “Do you wish it did, uh, cure you, or y’know… heal whatever mysterious.” He cuts himself off. “I don’t want to offend you. I don’t know enough to ask the right question.”

Red hums. “I’m glad it didn’t.” He doesn’t specify what it didn’t do, leaving Bucky with nothing more than what he already knew. “And maybe it’s too late. To try and get it back.” Bucky decidedly does not even attempt to question this, in case of suggesting to the Devil that he’s said too much. It’s not even a decision to know he isn’t going to try and look into it. Next to him, Matt is busy with his thoughts spiralling, trying to remember what something looks like. Anything. He knows what things are, he knows he’s seen them, but he can’t imagine anything but nothingness. He can’t even remember what fire looks like, and considering his mental landscape, that’s kind of shocking. Ironic, he thinks.

“Sam would suggest going to a therapy session.” Bucky breaks the silence, at last. “He runs one for war veterans.”

“I’m not a veteran.”

“I know.” Bucky says, but Red hadn’t finished as he continues with: “yet.”

“Yet? What do you mean ‘yet’?” But Red just throws his head back with a laugh. Bucky can’t tell if it’s some psychological problem or just an inside joke. After all, the man- or potential animal according to Tony, or Norse God to Rhodes, or Devil to Fury- does know the Punisher.

“I mean,” Red smirks, and jumps over so he’s positioned on top of Bucky, and the pair have been in this position before (though Bucky was still stuck in the past then), and cocks his head to the side, “the war isn’t over.” Bucky’s heart races. He’s not scared.

“You don’t have a weapon.”

“I am the weapon, Winter.” Red leans in closer and breathes out on his neck. He waits, asking for permission, and Bucky nods. “But I still have manners. I need verbal permission.”

“Kiss me.”

Red doesn’t hesitate to obey.

The pair end up in a bed in one of Bucky’s safe houses. “Did you have sex with me because I have a vibranium arm?” Bucky questions, not in an accusing tone, just to voice the thought that has popped into his head as they lay next to each other.

“No. I’ve wanted to have sex with you for months.” Red says. “Then I thought you were straight.” Bucky furrows his brows. “But then the vibranium reminded me I didn’t care, so I hit on you anyways.”

“You have a very strange way of hitting on people. If you normally steal their best friend’s favourite toy, have a flash back, and objectify yourself.” Red hums. “And I want to disagree with you, but even I know when I’m being a hypocritical ass.”

“Can we not talk about it?”

“Sorry.” Both Bucky and Red think about how it seems their roles have switched, between Matt’s Catholic guilt and Bucky’s being friends with Sam and Steve. Bucky is more like them than he realised. And that isn’t a bad thing, he decides. It means he’s becoming more human. “You know I can feel you touching my arm, even though it’s made of metal, right?”

Red doesn’t stop. “I’m counting on it.” Bucky can’t see his face under the mask, but he knows by the twitch in his lips, the metal is having just as much as an effect on him as the Devil’s having on him. Someone liking all of Bucky, is kind of new, whether it’s the past murders or the metal limb.

Red’s burner rings. He groans. “Hello?”

“Hey it’s Charm-Mc. Burner-Phone. You dead?”

“No.”

“Dying?”

“No.”

“Getting your ass kicked?”

Matt cocks his head towards Bucky. “No.” Bucky’s murderous glare is wasted. “Am I late?”

“Very.”

“Sorry. I’ll be there soon. Or at least within an hour.” Red hangs up the phone, prods Bucky’s arm, and jumps out of bed, quickly pulling on his armour. Matt goes home, changes, and gets to work in half an hour, reaching the offices at Nelson, Murdock, and Page at the same time as their latest client. “Mr Murdock.”

“Miss Wing.” Matt opens the door for her.

“Nelson annoyed by your tardiness?”

“As always.” Colleen laughs and takes the stairs two at a time, greeting Foggy, Karen, and Claire who leaps away from Karen as the door swing open. “Hey Claire. Your day off?”

“Not if you’re hiding injuries under that suit of yours.” Matt laughs, and leads Colleen through into his office, dragging Foggy with him. They go through the case together, brushing over any loose ends or anything that could be used against Colleen: the pair aren’t going to let her lose the jodo no matter what. “There were no sightings of the Man Without Fear last night.” Claire says conversationally, a couple of hours later, when they re-emerge from the office and collapse onto the sofa in the waiting room. “Did you take a night off?”

“Yeah.”

“No you didn’t.” Karen says. “I went to your flat with some papers. They’re on the coffee table.” Matt frowns. He hadn’t noticed them this morning.

“Are you sure?” Karen nods. “I couldn’t sense them.”

“I’m sure. I definitely went to your flat, you didn’t answer so I assumed you were Daredevilling, so I let myself in to leave the documents for the Layton case. You said they were important. I left straight after.”

“No, you were there. I could smell you.”

“That’s still creepy.” Foggy jokes.

“My nose isn’t creepy.”

“Just a little bit creepy.” Foggy laughs and raises his hand and does… something. Matt furrows his brows and cocks his head to the side. He clicks his fingers to see if that helps. “Sorry! I’m making that gesture where my thumb and finger are only slightly apart, to emphasise how much of a little bit I mean. Like… a tiny, tiny bit creepy. Right, ok, let’s take a lunch break and go and find the Layton papers!”

Matt and Foggy leave Karen and Claire to make out in the office. They call in Alyssa’s café and get some takeaway sandwiches which they eat on the way to Matt’s apartment. But from blocks over, all Matt’s been able to sense on the coffee table is Captain America’s shield. It’s right as they’re stood outside Matt’s building complex that it clicks. “Oh, Karen was right.” Matt says, “the papers are there. It’s fine.”

“You can sense them?”

“Yes.” Foggy takes a breath. Matt knows his lie was obvious, and he knows where Foggy’s going with this. “Please don’t make the polygraph quip.”

“I would never make the polygraph quip!” Foggy opens the door to the flat and Matt reluctantly follows him in.

“What about that time I said I was with Jessica when I was with Thor?”

“Ok, apart from that.”

“When I lied about not having a cold.”

“You literally sniffing and sneezing down the phone! That was a lie so blatant it could be seen from Spandex.”

“Spartax.”

“Bless you.” Matt grumbles something under his breath. “Now, what don’t you want me to see?” Foggy steps back and let’s his partner open the door. The speed is deliberately slowly, and after the fourth time Matt misses the lock, Foggy takes the key and unlocks the door himself. He walks down the hall and looks over the couch to the coffee table. “I think I figured out why you couldn’t sense them, Matty.”

“Hey, I figured it out two minutes ago!”

“It does beg the question of why Karen put them under Captain America’s shield.” Foggy lifts up the shield, and the resounding echo of sound causes Matt to yell out in pain and cover his ears with his hands. “Woah, dude? You ok?”

“Please say you heard that.”

“Yeah, I mean, not that intense, but it was kind of a nails on chalkboard kinda noise.”

“Don’t get me started on nails on chalkboard.”

“Matt- if vibranium is stopping you from sensing things… what if you’re suit stops you from sensing everything outside of that.”

Matt laughs. “Ha, yeah, that’s a good question Foggy.”

“Ok, we need to get this back to Captain America. Then we’ll go from there, ok?”

“Foggy, I…” Foggy moves the shield again and the same sound bounces against the walls and hits Matt many times. He clutches at his ears with his hands and holds back a scream as the shield hits the floor. Then it stops moving, and the shield is the only thing he can sense. Where the shield is usually the negative in his world on fire, it’s now the only space lit up.

It feels like he’s trapped in the shield, like he’s part of the energy it absorbs. He can feel the particles working together, he can feel it’s strength, and he can’t break out of it. He’s drowning, and there’s nothing else. Everything is a negative space of nothingness. He’s imagining what he does instead of seeing. He’s being dragged to the shield.

He crouches down, he sits on the floor. He knows he’s on the floor. But he can’t feel it. He can’t see, or hear, or smell, or touch, or taste. Well he can. He can taste metal, he can smell metal, he can hear the resounding energy it absorbs, and he can feel it convulsing.

Matt moves back until he can’t move anymore. Logically, he knows that must mean he’s hit a wall, but he can’t feel it. It’s not there. He’s floating in the centre of the shield. He curls himself into a ball, and he screams. He screams, and soon he can’t move. He’s being held into place, but he can’t feel the person. He just knows he can’t move. But Matt can speak. “I can’t. Foggy. Foggy. Are you here? Foggy. Foggy. Foggy. Foggy. Foggy.” He gets stuck like a record on loop, saying his friend’s name over and over, unable to hear his own voice. Foggy was here, and Foggy wouldn’t have left. Foggy promised he wouldn’t leave. Matt can move again. He can turn his head, and he can rock his body. The air doesn’t move about him.

The flaming disk starts to move. It hurts. “Stop! Foggy! Stop!” Suddenly the disk is falling, and falling, and falling, and Matt didn’t expect it to stop so soon. And when it did the world flashes back and the disk is back to empty space.

“-dy. Buddy. I’m here. I don’t know if that helped. I’m still here.”

“You’re still here.” Matt says, and Foggy’s heart speeds up, and his partner wraps his arms tight around Matt. “The world vanished, Fogs. I was inside the shield. I was inside it. Negative space. Couldn’t imagine. I imagined what I see.”

“You imagined what you see?” Foggy asks and starts to rub his shoulder. Matt can feel him rubbing his shoulder. “Were you burning?”

Matt shakes his head. “Nothing. Nothing, Foggy. I couldn’t… couldn’t…. there was nothing to interpret. Nothing.”

Foggy’s heart is speeding up. Matt wants to feel it. He reaches out his hand but stops. Foggy doesn’t say anything, doesn’t question it, doesn’t call it creepy. He just takes Matt’s hand in his and places it over his heart. “It’s not often one can honestly say their world got flipped upside down.”

Matt laughs, throwing his head back. “It didn’t get flipped, Fogs. It got inverted.”

“Specifics.” Foggy waves it off. Then he jumps to his feet, and Matt tilts his head confused. “I just threw Captain America’s shield out the window!”

“Yeah.” Matt says. “There’s a lot of people taking photos with it.”

“So you’re addiction…”

“Not an addiction.”

“Is it over now? Because this was much worse than the fridge magnet phase from last year.”

“There was no…” Matt had been addicted to magnets, especially obsessed with the feeling of the repelling force between the magnets. His fridge had been covered in magnets, and he had no idea what was on them. Occasionally Foggy would come in and find himself painting over the artwork of the dirtiest minded magnet sellers of Hell’s Kitchen. The addiction had gotten completely out of hand when Matt decided he loved magnets so much he thought it would be a fun idea to get Melvin to magnetise his suit. Foggy found out about this from Luke after his dumbass law partner had decided to go out and play parkour. He was soon getting a phone call from said dumbass saying that he was helping a friend out in Queens and had gotten stuck to a scientific experiment at Oscorp. On the taxi ride back, Matt admitted magnets weren’t the smartest choice of material, and chucked out all of his fridge magnets. As normal, he moped for a good few days, brooded over life decisions on some roof top, and then the topic was never mentioned again. Until now. “Ok. The magnets. Maybe I was addicted to the magnets. But I’m not anymore, just like my obsession- not addiction- to vibranium is over.”

“Good. Pizza and film?”

“You sound like Clint.”

Foggy really wants to ask who Clint is. But quickly decides this isn’t the time. “Can Clint do audio description as well as me?”

“Nobody can do audio description as well as you, Foggy.”

“Good. Now, Dominos.”

“No garlic dip.”

“That’s the best bit!”

“But it stinks, and you smell of garlic for like, an extra two weeks, even after my flat stops smelling of garlic. If you eat it, I will not go near you. I’ll work from home.”

“Ugh. Stop being such a vampire.” Foggy rolls his eyes over dramatically and pulls out his phone. “Now let me order.”

In all honesty, Foggy wasn’t really expecting Matt to stay home the next day, even with the whole being stuck inside a disk malarky. Actually, Foggy would have been surprised if Matt managed to sleep at all after that. He can’t even imagine what it would be like for the whole world to just… vanish. Foggy has also never been able to imagine Daredevil working a case in the office, and that’s something he’s thought about a lot seeing as Murdock and Daredevil are literally the same person.

But now he doesn’t have to.

His idiot of a law partner is crouched on his chair, running his fingers over braille documents, fully dressed in red.

“Matt?!”

“What?!” Matt whines. “I couldn’t sleep!”

“Have you been here all night?”

“No.” Matt then bows his head. “I’ve been here since two.”

“Go get some sl… is that vibranium?!” Foggy exclaims.

“No.”

“Oh my god!”

“Blaspheme.”

“That’s your vibranium suit!”

Karen bursts through the door. “Yellow car!” She yells, and leaps across to hit them both. “In your face Daredevil! I beat you and there is nothing you can do about it!”

“Karen.” Foggy sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You’re literally celebrating winning the yellow car game against a blind man.”

“He always knows.” She sighs dramatically. “That is a nice suit Red, does wonders for your ass. Not sure it’s the correct kind of suit.”

“Dude! It’s literally made of vibranium.”

“But it feels nice, Foggy.”

“You were inside Captain America’s shield!”

“I’m sure he won’t mind.” Matt counters, and Foggy let’s out an excruciatingly long groan. Karen’s not sure what she’s walked in on.

“Next thing we know, you’ll be stealing the Winter Soldier’s goddam arm!” Matt’s lip twitches ever so slightly. Something Foggy wouldn’t even notice if he didn’t know Murdock. “You didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?” Karen asks, oh so blissfully ignorant. Foggy scans the room and his eyes lock on the cabinet in the far corner.

“No. Foggy. You don’t need to…” Foggy walks over, opens the cabinet, and stands back. He folds his arms and examines the contents. One weaponised arm, one war hero’s shield, and one king’s necklace.

He spins around, only to find Matt’s chair empty. “Matt!”


End file.
